Comments on: Domain Arguments http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments Alex King's blog - software, photography, sports, etc. Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:52:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 By: Daniel Pasco http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56608 Daniel Pasco Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:20:08 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56608 Alex, As I said to you via IM, I think that .net is pretty appropriate for people or organizations involved in active web development (hell, any distributed computing development at all, for that matter. To me, .com implies a company, but .net implies something on a more technical level or a social networking site. Either one seems more appropriate for cats of our ilk. Bravo, and good choice. -Daniel Alex,
As I said to you via IM, I think that .net is pretty appropriate for people or organizations involved in active web development (hell, any distributed computing development at all, for that matter.

To me, .com implies a company, but .net implies something on a more technical level or a social networking site. Either one seems more appropriate for cats of our ilk.

Bravo, and good choice.

-Daniel

]]> By: Decision: crowdfavorite.net | alexking.org http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56607 Decision: crowdfavorite.net | alexking.org Fri, 08 Jun 2007 05:40:05 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56607 [...] I asked a few people which they liked better and started getting interesting responses. That prompted me to take a poll, which led to even more interesting feedback. [...] […] I asked a few people which they liked better and started getting interesting responses. That prompted me to take a poll, which led to even more interesting feedback. […]

]]> By: Kent http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56588 Kent Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:01:51 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56588 and naturally just read your decision in the twitter post... and naturally just read your decision in the twitter post…

]]> By: Kent http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56587 Kent Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:58:49 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56587 Alex, My preference would be crowdfavorite.net, but I wonder if you think that using KingDesign.net caused any issues vs. using KingDesign.com? And just to muddy the waters, did you think about using crowdfavorIT.com? Obviously capitalization doesn't matter with the name, but it would be more of a branding thing having IT stand out. Just another option. Alex,

My preference would be crowdfavorite.net, but I wonder if you think that using KingDesign.net caused any issues vs. using KingDesign.com?

And just to muddy the waters, did you think about using crowdfavorIT.com? Obviously capitalization doesn’t matter with the name, but it would be more of a branding thing having IT stand out. Just another option.

]]> By: Sean Porter http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56582 Sean Porter Thu, 07 Jun 2007 10:44:47 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56582 How do people find your site? 1) Google 2) Business Card/Email/Etc 3) Spoken word 1 and 2 handle themselves, as soon as you launch proplery you have everybody you know witth a little googlejuice give you a little link love. 3 is the edge case, the one that you need to optimize for. crowdfavorite dot net, or crowd-f-a-v-e dot com? How do people find your site?

1) Google
2) Business Card/Email/Etc
3) Spoken word

1 and 2 handle themselves, as soon as you launch proplery you have everybody you know witth a little googlejuice give you a little link love.

3 is the edge case, the one that you need to optimize for. crowdfavorite dot net, or crowd-f-a-v-e dot com?

]]> By: Vince http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56580 Vince Thu, 07 Jun 2007 05:45:54 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56580 I also voted for crowdfavorite.net as the abbreviation will come back and haunt you for a long time. I work at Common Ground Distributors, and before I started there, they had [and still use] the comground.com domain name. It is a nightmare to have to spell that out to people [one 'm', etc]. I registered [and transfered] commongrounddistributors.com and commongroundbooks.com and a bunch of others simply so that on the phone, it would be easier to say. We deal with a lot of folks who are not *that* tech savvy, but we try to encourage them to go to the website to place orders, rather than the phone. For e.mail, I still use the shorter address, and of course postfix and apache are all mapped so that any one of a zillion combos will come to us [though we have tried, commonground.com is still not for sale and probably never will be]. I also think it looks tacky on our business cards to show the shorter URL. I think those that have been there longer than I [i've been there about 3 years] have also seen this problem, but are so used it to it, it doesn't matter much to them. Maybe a dot net doesn't have the same ego-boosting that a dot com does, but I think it is important that your domain name match the business name, regardless of the TLD. Heck, even a .biz would work, even if that is an even bigger kick in the ego. Shortening the domain name will come back to haunt you....trust me! :) /vjl/ I also voted for crowdfavorite.net as the abbreviation will come back and haunt you for a long time. I work at Common Ground Distributors, and before I started there, they had [and still use] the comground.com domain name. It is a nightmare to have to spell that out to people [one ‘m’, etc]. I registered [and transfered] commongrounddistributors.com and commongroundbooks.com and a bunch of others simply so that on the phone, it would be easier to say. We deal with a lot of folks who are not *that* tech savvy, but we try to encourage them to go to the website to place orders, rather than the phone.

For e.mail, I still use the shorter address, and of course postfix and apache are all mapped so that any one of a zillion combos will come to us [though we have tried, commonground.com is still not for sale and probably never will be].

I also think it looks tacky on our business cards to show the shorter URL. I think those that have been there longer than I [i’ve been there about 3 years] have also seen this problem, but are so used it to it, it doesn’t matter much to them. Maybe a dot net doesn’t have the same ego-boosting that a dot com does, but I think it is important that your domain name match the business name, regardless of the TLD. Heck, even a .biz would work, even if that is an even bigger kick in the ego.

Shortening the domain name will come back to haunt you….trust me! :)

/vjl/

]]> By: jenz http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56575 jenz Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:33:01 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56575 This is a tough one. I really prefer company URLs with .com for the same reasons as Joost. With that said, you have been doing business with a .net address for a few years now and it has not seemed to bother you or hinder business. I like the idea of the .com name, but not at the expense of the "how was that shortened again?". I would use the .net full name address until you can get ahold of the .com name. The transition will be much easier - and it is never a bad idea to have the .net of your company name. This is a tough one. I really prefer company URLs with .com for the same reasons as Joost. With that said, you have been doing business with a .net address for a few years now and it has not seemed to bother you or hinder business. I like the idea of the .com name, but not at the expense of the “how was that shortened again?”. I would use the .net full name address until you can get ahold of the .com name. The transition will be much easier - and it is never a bad idea to have the .net of your company name.

]]> By: brett http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56564 brett Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:00:46 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56564 "The less tech-savvy folks I’ve asked have been nearly unanimous on crowdfave.com - they are not as comfortable with .net TLDs." This is an interesting perspective. For the tech-savvy crowd (and tech-savvy potential customer), this is mostly an irrelevant discussion. We'll all find the page regardless. But if there are customers who will think to themselves "Are these guys a respectable company?" based on the URL, then maybe custfave.com is the one you want to go forth with. OTOH, there's some validity to an argument that you don't *want* those kind of customers, but that's obviously up to you. :) “The less tech-savvy folks I’ve asked have been nearly unanimous on crowdfave.com - they are not as comfortable with .net TLDs.”

This is an interesting perspective. For the tech-savvy crowd (and tech-savvy potential customer), this is mostly an irrelevant discussion. We’ll all find the page regardless. But if there are customers who will think to themselves “Are these guys a respectable company?” based on the URL, then maybe custfave.com is the one you want to go forth with.

OTOH, there’s some validity to an argument that you don’t *want* those kind of customers, but that’s obviously up to you. :)

]]> By: Joost Schuur http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56563 Joost Schuur Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:07:05 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/06/05/domain-arguments#comment-56563 I tried to think of a company that uses .net for it's corporate identity and couldn't spontaneously come up with one. I think the risk of losing traffic to the .com when giving out a .net address far outweighs the risk of having to spell out crowdfave.com. You've obviously thought ahead and have crowdfav.com too. Having said that, we used to use gamespy.net at work for the tech licensing department of the GameSpy brand, when gamespy.com was used by the editorial GameSpy site. We just recently switched to poweredbygamespy.com, to avoid people hitting gamespy.com, thinking they'd find the particular division I'm in. I tried to think of a company that uses .net for it’s corporate identity and couldn’t spontaneously come up with one.

I think the risk of losing traffic to the .com when giving out a .net address far outweighs the risk of having to spell out crowdfave.com. You’ve obviously thought ahead and have crowdfav.com too.

Having said that, we used to use gamespy.net at work for the tech licensing department of the GameSpy brand, when gamespy.com was used by the editorial GameSpy site. We just recently switched to poweredbygamespy.com, to avoid people hitting gamespy.com, thinking they’d find the particular division I’m in.

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